The tax-cut weapon in their one-sided class war

https://socialistworker.org/2017/11/21/the-tax-cut-weapon-in-their-one-sided-class-war

A day to give thanks?

https://socialistworker.org/2009/11/25/day-to-give-thanks

Russian television’s Trotsky serial: A degraded spectacle of historical falsification and anti-Semitism

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/11/25/tele-n25.html

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/11/25/mars-n25.html

The evil GOP Tax bill

https://www.dcreport.org/2017/11/17/why-this-house-tax-scheme-is-for-idiots/

More News

http://www.alaskacommons.com/2016/02/15/activist-bree-newsome-challenges-alaskans-agents-change/

https://jezebel.com/activist-johnetta-elzie-talks-ferguson-black-lives-ma-1718374170

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_history_of_China_before_1912

https://isreview.org/issue/107/leon-trotskys-history-russian-revolution-part-1

Ancient Economic History

The Classical Age of world history lasted from 500 B.C. to 500 A.D. It was after the Iron Age. The Classical Age related to the further development of world empires, the expansion of trade, and the further complex growth of human interactions. Back then, India and China had the biggest economies in the world at that time. Each had more than half of the size of the world’s economy. They had high GDP, but they didn’t have significantly higher GDP per capita. Each had major population centers too. Commercial changes grew as result of the actions of Alexander the Great too. He facilitated multi-national trade. Julius Caesar of ancient Rome also conquered France and Britain. By the time of the Roman Empire, Egypt was the wealthiest of all places within the Roman Empire. The merchants of Rome acquired produce from Persia via Egypt by the port of Berenince and subsequently the Nile. Ancient Nubia during the classical period had its ideas and technologies travel in the rest of Africa, Europe, Asia, etc. Nubia traded with Chad, Libya, Egypt, China, India, and the Arabian Peninsula too. The Bantu migration during this period continued. In ancient China, there was the Warring States era from the 5th century to 3rd century B.C. As the feudal system collapsed, most legislative power transferred from the nobility to local kings. Increased trade during the Warring States period produced a stronger merchant class. The new kings in ancient China established an elaborate bureaucracy, using it to wage wars, build large temples, and enact public-works projects. This meritocratic system rewarded talent over birthright. Greater use of iron tools revolutionized agriculture and led to a large population increase during this period. In 221 B.C., the king of the Qin declared himself the First Emperor, uniting China into a single empire. The Qin Dyansty saw its various state walls into the Great Wall, and its various peoples and traditions into a single system of government. The Qin emperor unified standards of writing, weight measurement, and wheel length. It ended old currencies that varied among states. Trade was easier to execute. It had heavy taxation of salt and iron manufactures. Many Chinese people were forcibly migrated to new territories in the south and west. Although their initial implementation led to its overthrow in 206 B.C., the Qin's institutions survived. During the Han Dynasty (from 3rd century B.C. to 3rd century A.D.), China became a strong, unified, and centralized empire of self-sufficient farmers and artisans, with limited local autonomy. The Han dynasty in China was a Golden Age. There was rapid growth. Its population reached 58 million people. There was the wheelbarrow, paper, and a seismograph which was invented during this period.

According to Herodotus, and most modern scholars, the Lydians were the first people to introduce the use of gold and silver coin. It is thought that these first stamped coins were minted around 650–600 BC. A stater coin was made in the stater (trite) denomination. To complement the stater, fractions were made: the trite (third), the hekte (sixth), and so forth in lower denominations. The first economist (at least from within opinion generated by the evidence of extant writings) is considered to be Hesiod, by the fact of his having written on the fundamental subject of the scarcity of resources, in Works and Days. Indian thinker Chanakya wrote Arthshastra, science of economics in contemporary India in 4th century BC. Greek and Roman thinkers made various economic observations, especially Aristotle and Xenophon. Many other Greek writings show understanding of sophisticated economic concepts. For instance, a form of Gresham’s Law is presented in Aristophanes’ Frogs. Bryson of Heraclea was a neo-platonic who is cited as having heavily influenced early Muslim economic scholarship.


During the Middle Age, the world economy slowly expanded with the increase of population and trade. There was the Silk Road that was used for trading from Europe, Central Asia, and to China. The Axumite Kingdom of Ethiopia and Eritrea had a powerful navy. They established trade with the Byzantine Empire and India. Islamic areas by the Middle East expanded trade, literacy, and centralized states. By 1324, Mansa Musa, the king of Mali, made a historically famous Hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca. There was an enormous group organized to undertake the Hajj with the king. It included "60,000 men, including 1200 servants" and records show that Mansa Musa gave out so much gold in Egypt, that its economy became depressed. Between 1000 and 1500, the forests of West Africa also became part of trade networks, particularly under the reigns of the Yoruba kings. Ifé was a vital trade town, along the route from the tropical forests to Djenné, a major trade center in Sudan, near other large trade cities such as Timbuktu and Gao. Ifé's location also placed it near Benin and the Atlantic Ocean. Yoruba civilization was supported by cities surrounded by farmed land, but extensive trade development made it wealthy. The stone city of Great Zimbabwe, founded around 1100, was the center of the Shona kingdom until around 1400. In the Tang dynasty (in ancient China), there was another Golden Age in China. By 630, the Tang had conquered the powerful Gokturk Khagnate, preventing threats to China's borders for more than a century. A series of strong and efficient rulers, beginning with the founder and including a woman, expanded the Tang Empire to the point that it rivalled the later Yuan, Ming and Qing. The Tang was a period of rapid economic growth and prosperity, seeing the beginnings of woodblock printing. Tang rulers issued large amounts of currency to facilitate trade and distributed land under the equal-field system. The population recovered to and then reached an estimated 80 million human beings. The Chinese Song period (10th–13th century) brought additional economic reforms. Paper money, the compass, and other technological advances facilitated communication on a large scale and the widespread circulation of books during the Song period. The state's control of the economy diminished, allowing private merchants to prosper and a large increase in investment and profit. Despite disruptions during the Mongol conquest of 1279, the 2nd plague epidemic in the 14th century, and the large-scale rebellions that followed it, China's population was buoyed by the Columbian Exchange and increased greatly under the Ming (14th–17th centuries). The Ming dynasty of China saw cash crops grown and it was founded by Zhu Yuanzhang. Many state industries were privatized. The Ming Dynasty was a very important era of Chinese history.

During the early part of the Middle East, Europe was in chaos because of wars, the end of the Western Roman Empire, and other problems. By the later medieval period, rich trading cities in Italy developed. They created the first modern accounting and finance systems in Europe. The first banknotes were used in the Tang dynasty China in the ninth century A.D. It expanded use during the Song dynasty. By the first millennium A.D., there were improvements in technique and technology in the world. Monasteries developed. There were centers of the collection of knowledge involving agriculture and forestry. Irrigation improved. There were trade among Europeans, Africans, and Asians. Those in the Americas traded with each other too. Economies in Oceania, Australia, and the rest of the world existed. Land use increased and population increased. Large landowners had significant control over both their land and its laborers, who were peasants or serfs. More iron smelting caused more tools to be developed for developing society. Watermills and windmills spread in the world. There was the Great Famine from 1315 to 1317. It weakened populations in Europe and parts of Asia too. From the 8th century to the 12th century, there were the Vikings using long distance navigation to travel into Europe, America, parts of Africa, and the Middle East. There was the longship and the astrolabe used by the Vikings and others for navigation. Guilds and merchant capitalism was formed. This was about merchant houses, backed by financiers acting as intermediaries between simple commodity producers. This system continued until it was supplanted by industrial capitalism in the 18th Century. City states like in Italy developed. Genoa and Venice created large wealth. In the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, the Hanseatic League trade monopoly grew trade along the 2 seas. Lubeck was the city leader of the Hanseatic League. In the late 1400’s, the economies of Europe (especially in France) did grow and recuperated from the economic catastrophes and bad harvest plus famines including wars.


By 1500, the world has changed. This era was the start of the massive international slave trade. It was during the late 1400’s when Portugal began the modern International slave trade involving the oppression of black African people. There were early European colonists in North Africa like the ancient Greeks. The modern economy as we know it today revolved around the brutal oppression of black people and the genocide of the Americas literally. Portuguese prince Henry the Navigator made it very clear that he wanted to travel into Africa as a means to get resources and try to convert as many African people to his version of Christianity (in the midst of the Ottoman Empire, which was mostly Muslim). Not all Christians are responsible for the Maafa. It is that evil people purposely perverted the essence of real Christianity as an excuse for them to commit evil. It’s like not all Muslims are responsible for the Arabic slave trade (which was evil and unjust), but some people claiming to be Muslims are responsible for it. The Portuguese refused to sell African guns, but they sold Africans Indian cloth and European manufactured goods. Europe itself used imperialism and massive economic exploitation as a means for that continent to grow their various brutal empires in the world.


By Timothy

Thanksgiving 2017 Part 5

Conclusion (Thanksgiving)

One of the biggest myths in the world is that praying and marching haven't caused any progress in the world. History is the best way to refute such a pernicious myth. First, there is nothing wrong with praying and marching. Many folks, who mock those marching, disrespect our ancestors who did these things for long years. Second, the Montgomery Bus Boycott involved boycotts, marching, praying, and social activism. The actions of many in that movement caused their cause to be successful. Many people marched, prayed, and protested during the 1960's to cause the Civil Rights Act to be passed in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act to be passed in 1965. Tons of marching and boycott worldwide caused apartheid to end in South Africa. During the anti-apartheid movement, there was a very successful economic divestment campaign which withheld funds from supporters of South African apartheid. Even back during the 1930's, massive labor rights protests contributed to Social Security and other economic rights to exist in our land. That is why workers must be respected since they are the ones who create our TVs, our homes, our cars, and so many other entities worldwide. In our generation, there is a higher sense of awareness about police brutality and racial injustice by marching and protests. It is true that we should use our economic power in boycotts and economic development. Yet, finances alone isn't going to save us. What will save us is a cogent, political and economic plan for our community. It involved promoting living wages (which the haters don't discuss readily), a healthy environment, labor rights, a fight against poverty, using policies that will improve our families including our communities, and grassroots organizing in order for us to see the Promised Land for real.

Recently, about 2,800 documents related to the JFK assassination has been released to the public. Some of the documents (in about 300) was not released yet since Trump wants a 6 month review. Also, Trump received pressure from the CIA and the FBI that revealing such material would be detrimental to "national security." I believe in transparency. We have found information about this tragic situation in 1963. Many things confirm what we know for years. One of those things is that the new documents prove one again that the CIA worked with the Mafia in plans to try to assassinate Fidel Castro (who passed away recently and he was a Communist). The report said Attorney General Robert Kennedy, the President's brother, told the FBI he learned the CIA hired an intermediary "to approach Sam Giancana with a proposition of paying $150,000 to hire some gunman to go into Cuba and kill Castro." US Attorney General Robert Kennedy was reluctant to use the Mafia in the assassination attempts against Castro due to his push against organized crime. The plot to kill Castro by the CIA is known as Operation Mongoose. There are CIA photos from the document too. The documents show that Lee Harvey Oswald got ammunition from a right wing militia group. We find out that the FBI found out someone trying to kill Oswald. One document has a person asking then CIA Director Richard Helms (during the 1970's) if there was any way Oswald was in some way a CIA agent or an agent. Then, the document mysteriously cuts off (without Helms giving his answer).

Many of the documents are completely illegible. Before the assassination, Oswald was in Mexico City and had communication with intelligence agents from the Soviet Union and Cuba. Documents revealed that the Soviets were shocked at the death of Kennedy since Kennedy was seen by the Soviet Union as much more moderate than other Cold Warrior politicians. JFK was the one who signed the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1963. One question is why the CIA doesn't want more documents released when it has been over 50 years after 1963?  CIA Director Richard Helms, who served under both the Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon administrations, claimed in April 1975 that Johnson used to claim that Kennedy’s killing was an act of foreign retribution, the documents show. "President Johnson used to go around saying that the reason President Kennedy was assassinated was that he had assassinated President Diem,” Helms said in a deposition. One of the biggest revelations was that the CIA had plans to try to assassinate Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba and Indonesian president Sukarno. We know that many Western imperialists hated Lumumba since he wanted Congo to be independent from Western imperial influence. This release is like a movie script, but this is real history and this is real life. A recently poll says that 61% of Americans view the assassination of President John F. Kennedy as a product of a conspiracy. One thing that people, who either believe in a conspiracy or not, do find is that the FBI and the CIA covered up many things as an means for them to cover up their bureaucratic mistakes. More questions remain and that is why we desire the whole truth.

Today, many people have been found to have done sexual harassment and other forms of sexual misconduct. These stories show that the Golden Rule is important to promote and advance. Sexual harassment is an epidemic in the world. It should end. Victims should definitely be supported unconditionally. This sexual misconduct isn't just found in the workplace. Many people, even in Facebook, do show inappropriate messages to women in Facebook too. That is deplorable and wrong. Therefore, we have to call out these evils and promote progressive communication and progressive relationships among human beings. Those, who commit the evils of sexual harassment and sexual misconduct, must experience accountability. Part of this problem also includes many Hoteps and PUAs who advance misogynistic lies, which poisons society in many ways. Victims include women and men. The vast majority of adult victims of sexual harassment and sexual misconduct are women. This is a systematic problem and changes in the system must come about. We will not be silent. We are in the right side of this movement for change. Human beings must be treated with dignity and with respect.

We witness the crisis of politics in America. The GOP existed since the 19th century. Today, the leader of the Republican Party is Donald Trump as he is President currently and he's a Republican. Tons of hypocrites voted for Trump knowing full well that he has shown anti-spiritual qualities of cursing constantly, refusing to ask God for forgiveness of anything, of degrading women, of degrading immigrants, and for allying with neo-Confederates (who want statues of known white supremacist Confederate traitors to be on public lands). Trump's heinous morality has either been ignored or supported by his supporters. Therefore, anyone who supports Trump today allies with his xenophobic nationalism and his racism. Senators like Corker, McCain, and Flake have criticized Trump because of his non-civil attitude and his disgraceful actions.

Also, it is important to note that this situation didn't start in 2016. Decades ago, the GOP has used the Southern Strategy, racist campaigning, voter suppression laws, and other deplorable tactics for the sake of them gaining power and getting votes. Trump is the modern manifestation of the sick evils of white supremacist views and a reactionary agenda (which desires draconian austerity, tax cuts for the super wealthy, militarism, and hatred of our democratic freedoms. Trump wants to ban kneels in football games, restrict licenses against media organizations that disagrees with him, and he wants to loosen libel laws. These actions are blatantly against the freedom of speech). Trump has threatened war with North Korea too when North Korea has nuclear weapons. We know about EMP devices too that can ruin the electric grid. That type of a war with North Korea could kill millions of people, so only peaceful diplomacy is the solution to that crisis. This fascist nationalist movement isn't just found in America. In Germany, there is Alternative for Germany, in the UK, there is the Independence Party, and in other countries, fascists (who hate refugees, immigrants, and the idea of multiculturalism) are abundant. This is why heroic organizations to combat fascism are needed and we are aware that these bigots (like Bannon, Trump, etc.) won't quit until we are suppressed completely of our rights. There is nothing wrong with having patience in some areas of life, but we should have total impatience in dealing with injustice. Now, we must continue to fight for our rights and speak out. We love our diversity in America and we appreciate real democratic freedom. Also, we are in the right and we will win in the end.

By Timothy